San Bernardino County Presiding Judge Marsha Slough announced today that the Barstow Courthouse will shut down effective May 6, 2013. It is the latest in cost-savings measures implemented to deal with a $22 million cut to the budget by the state.
“The severe funding cuts made to our budget result in the need to take these painful steps. We are cognizant of the impact that these actions will have upon the bar and citizens of this county who have business in the court, especially for people who live some distance from the remaining courthouses. The simple fact is that we can no longer afford to support as many court locations, or support as many services as in the past,” said Judge Slough.
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Good Old Fashioned Hand Written Code by Eric J. Schwarz
That last line, “…for justice, or lack thereof”, great line. Victorville should not be the last point east with a courthouse in a county that large. I guess most of the money is on one side of the hill, but if the other side is not being served adequately, maybe the desert side needs to secede…
I have a question, If they close Barstow, are they going to open Needles back up?
Does it seem prudent to force residents in the needles or Barstow areas to have to travel to Victorville court? I don’t know about Barstow, but just over 78% of Needles and surrounding area residents own vehicles. That’s a 2yr old stat, but likely hasn’t changed much.
I am curious if that is even legal. Would seem that there’s a jurisdictional issue there….
How would you like to be a graveyard deputy (midnight shift) in Needles, that has to go to court after his/her shift! Work a 12 hour shift, drive 3 hours, sit in court all day. If I was there they would be renting me a motel room (plus buying my meals). But the youngsters will not push the issue, and will try to maximize the OT. Just before I retired the refused to pay the guys ‘driving time’ to go to Barstow for court. Time for video appearances.
I’m guessing that this is the same court house that is depicted in the Erin Brokovich movie. I only mention that because I found it interesting that in the movie the first judge hearing the case cited with the plaintiffs out of concern because he also lived in the area and felt concerned over PG&E ‘s abuses.
Yes. Judge Simmons was that judge.
Justice for all except in San Berdo…the Desert should secede…can’t happen fast enough for me…the overtime for cops will horrendous….take it out of the judges “extra pay”..none of them are worth much, Ikeep hearing about their heavy caseload, then why don’t they take the bench earlier, why do some leave at 3pm? Eliminate 20% of these worthless Judges
Blase, to answer your question, May 6th – Needles and Big Bear will close completely. That means not even traffic once a month. Barstow will close. Chino is closing in January. Juvie cases are going to San Bernardino. That means Needles deps are going to have to do the 4 hour commute for juvie cases and drive to Victorville for everything else. Tarangle still will not pay mileage and would probably have kittens if somebody put in for meals/motel. Just sayin’.
Hmm I think Home Depot has blinders on sale this week, special 50% off for patrol cops.
Drive 180 plus miles one way to court be it traffic or criminal from Needles? 40 from Barstow?
The freakin system could not handle the load 10 years ago.
Now the street cops/victim citizens have yet a bigger burden to deal with.
Attorneys will have another tool to use in discouraging witnesses to come forward.
ROAD THERAPY….
Yeah, what about the Friggin’ VICTIMS? Needles has 2 Detectives (one most of the time, due to manpower shortages) so who is going to transport the VICTIMS and which of those VICTIMS is going to be able to take that amount of time off, from work, to go to court i Victorville? Want to be a criminal? Come to Needles!
What about jury duty? Will residents from areas near stateline be forced to travel to Victorville to do their “civic” duty?
Suck it up. Stop being a bunch of whiners. Do whatever it takes to make it right. Drive 2 hours if it is the right thing to do. Yes even I have had to work back to back to go to court. The ones making these posts obviously lost the mentality of doing the right thing years ago! You are compensated for your time and if you don’t like it, there are openings at Wells Fargo during normal business hours. Stop whining. You have the best job in the world and you know it, so just do it!!
Hey Joe, they ARE NOT compensated for driving to/from Court (not corrected in the last MOU). They also work 12 hr shifts, drive 3 hours (its 225 miles) sit thru VV Court (which was backed up BEFORE this closure) for HOURS and drive home. That just isn’t safe.
Suck it up isn’t the answer, IT SUCKS and is dangerous, I did the drive to Barstow, when they closed Needles Court, and after Graves then Court all day I got a room and some sleep. I then drove back to Needles ‘on duty’ at the start of Graves that night. That pissed some people off, but it was ‘the right thing to do’.
Do you ever agree with anyone? You talk about Kenny being miserable, YOU are the miserable one. At least Kenny can be positive at times.
The answer to the problem, short of re-opening the closed courts, is video appearances,
James Mills (Drunk Joe) echos the executives at SBSD. What a joke.
Fassari – You just gave the executive staff at headquarters the answer. Now if you were “In the pocket” of Hoops, you could have been appointed to a committee to study the problem and come up with a solution. You could have charged $85.00 an hour and spend six months to a year studying it. But No, you had to give the solution for free… lol
Just can’t keep my mouth shut, nothing changed.
LOL
Where are the judges from the closed courts going to be housed? Are they going to sit around all day in the closed courtrooms? There are
not enough court rooms in Victorville to put the displacedJudges. Why isitonly the desert residents who get the shaft? Shut down Rancho????Na, too many rich people out there